MY SOUTHERN OCEAN ADVENTURE ON APRIL 19, 2012- A MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE FOR GREENPEACE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN.
Bremer Bay – WA (Southern Ocean)
Bremer Bay – WA (Coast line)
Anne with her bottle – April 19, 2012
I planned to honour 100 years since my Glaswegian Grannie, Agnes Gibson sailed from London to Sydney on the steam ship, “Pakeha.” She was coming to Sydney to marry her fiancé, who had arrived in Sydney in 1909.
Grannie left London on March 12, 1912 as a third class passenger. I have my Grannie’s original ticket and log, so I could plot her journey to Sydney. Each day she recorded latitude, longitude, distance travelled and the weather conditions.
On April 19,2012 I sailed 60 nautical miles south of West Cape Howe into the mighty Southern Ocean with Mark, an Albany (Western Australia) sailor and his sailing companion, Jenny. We sailed on Jenny’s boat,“The Mirragen” as the weather conditions were not right to sail in Mark’s sailing boat.
It was 100 years to the day that my Grannie sailed past Albany, albeit at 44 degrees 27 minutes south 123 degrees 2 minutes east. We made it to 36 degrees south, where after reading a verse of a Robert Burns poem-“My Love is Like a Red Red Rose” I put a bottle overboard with my Grannie’s life story in it. I wished my bottle “God Speed.”
Mark prepared my bottle in the same manner that he prepared his bottle when circumnavigating Cape Horn, South America in approximately 2009. My bottle was well prepared for its journey in the Southern Ocean!
It was a surreal experience being out in the Southern Ocean – albatrosses were flying overhead, the waves were very high energy, and one needed a good grip on board “The Mirragen.” It was not for the faint hearted…
My bottle unexpectedly washed in approximately 32 days later at Bremer Bay, 189 miles east of Albany. Russell, a Perth fisherman, who lived one street away from my cousin in Jane Brook, was excited to find my bottle as flotsam on the beach. He and his wife emailed me from the caravan park to tell me of their find, and to ask me what i wanted them to do with my bottle.
Russell and Raelene took my bottle wrapped in a sleeping bag back to Perth. I collected my bottle from Raelene in Swan View, Perth on July 28 2012. I crossed the continent by air back to Sydney with my Fifth Leg Bottle wrapped in a towel. It travelled in a towel to Eden.
On September 30, 2012 I recommitted Grannie’s bottle out of Eden, Southern NSW. An Eden fishing operator, Richard and his deck hand, Paul took me out to the Continental Shelf on Richard’s boat, “The Connemarra.”
In the distance, we could see the spray from humpback whales on their way south to Antarctica. Albatrosses were flying overhead, as well as Siberian mutton birds. This was again an amazing experience although much more gentle than my Southern Ocean experience.
Grannie’s bottle in 2018 is still at sea; I often wonder where it might be…
I honoured my Grannie’s brave journey in 1912 from London to Sydney. I greatly appreciated the majesty and amazing beauty of the ocean, and could understand how rough her journey must have been in sailing as a third class passenger through the Roaring Forties.
My story is commemorated on my 8 minute You Tube, Anne’s Adventure. There are more stories about “my bottle” on my website, annefield.net.au.
On March 31 2017, I visited Bremer Bay to see the beach where my bottle washed in. I again admired the beautiful scenery of the coastline in this area. I caught up for a 5 year reunion in Albany with Mark, the sailor who had taken me out to sea, later that afternoon.
A wonderful story of adventure, which honoured my family history and allowed me to appreciate the beauty of the Southern Ocean.
In 2019, I hope to write my story of this adventure and to then publish it in 2020.
Anne Field
Kogarah, Sydney
April 11 2018
